Short term irradiation nuclear weapon

Hello all. I am not a physicist and would probably be considered a "physics idiot" by people on this site, so please excuse any ignorance on my part.

I am writing a book and need some help with the physics of nuclear weapons. For the purposes of my book, I am looking to have one of my characters create what I as a layman would call a "short term irradiation nuclear weapon" (please forgive if the verbiage is incorrect).

From my research, i have surmised that this could not be any type of in use weapon, as all appear to have fission as some part of the "equation", and this would create long term irradiation in the affected areas. If anyone out there could give me some guidance, theoretical or factual, as to how this type of weapon might be created it would be very helpful to me for the purposes of my book.

Feel free to be as "theoretical" as you like, The more fantastical the better provided the science actually would work. In short, a weapon which the "desired effects" last for only a few minutes or days, and then cease. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello all. I am not a physicist and would probably be considered a "physics idiot" by people on this site, so please excuse any ignorance on my part.

I am writing a book and need some help with the physics of nuclear weapons. For the purposes of my book, I am looking to have one of my characters create what I as a layman would call a "short term irradiation nuclear weapon" (please forgive if the verbiage is incorrect).

From my research, i have surmised that this could not be any type of in use weapon, as all appear to have fission as some part of the "equation", and this would create long term irradiation in the affected areas. If anyone out there could give me some guidance, theoretical or factual, as to how this type of weapon might be created it would be very helpful to me for the purposes of my book.

Feel free to be as "theoretical" as you like, The more fantastical the better provided the science actually would work. In short, a weapon which the "desired effects" last for only a few minutes or days, and then cease. Thanks in advance for any help.

Just a note to any repliers, I need the science/physics to be real. They moved it to the science fiction section which is ok, but I'm looking for real world physics of these potential types of weapons. Thanks.

Do you specifically want a nuclear weapon that produces short lived fallout or would a weapon with no fallout be good too? Pure fusion bombs are a hypothetical type of hydrogen bomb that would not produce any fallout:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_fusion_weapon

Staff: Mentor

Dirty ("salted") conventional bombs that just spread radioactive material can lead to radioactivity for a few days or more. Less than a few days would lead to serious production and transportation issues.